One Day Down
by robert3A-SN
Summary: Leslie and Ben try their best to be sneaky on the first full day of their secret relationship in the office.


Everyone remembers the biggest, most unforgettable day of their lives, or in the lives of loved ones, or even in their city or country. But the day after that tends to go by the wayside, as it can't really live up to what came before. However, this particular 'day after' had a chance to be quite different.

If it was, then Ben Wyatt wondered if he'd still be able to stand, given what came yesterday. A day that had his first kisses with Leslie Knope, the first full, non-coded confessions about how they felt, and a vow to start a secret relationship….well, that set quite a high bar. However, the first official day of such a relationship could provide a substantial challenge, nonetheless.

Yet Ben didn't know how much of a good or bad thing that would be today, or in the days to come. He had gotten too good at hiding his affections in the office lately, but now that Leslie was in on them as well, it would impossibly get even harder. And of course, since both of them were rookies at this sort of thing, they might make a rookie mistake that they couldn't afford. Especially when it came to people not known for their sneakiness.

But Ben got into his office just like in every other day, said hello to Chris just like every other day, and wished that he'd go to Indianapolis on a 10-year long project, just like every other day. Beyond that, the rest of it was bound to be uncharted territory. He hadn't even figured out how he would say hello to Leslie yet, or what excuse he would make up to see her. Talking normally again would be hard at first for any couple, after they had a day like yesterday, but this took it to ridiculous extremes.

He knew he should have spent the night thinking of a real plan or structure to this, instead of daydreaming about yesterday's….better moments for the 50'th time. Leslie was bound to be more structured and have something in place, but he didn't even know how to go to her and find out what that was. It might not be safe to do so until lunch, if that, and if it wasn't-

"Good morning, Ben!"

For all the self-control Ben had used in recent weeks, it was only barely enough to stop him from jumping out of his chair when he heard Leslie. And by some miracle, it kept him from jumping up when he saw Leslie approaching his desk.

"Um, uh, good morning to you," was all Ben could muster. He tried in vain to search for any coded messages he could use, or at least ones that he hadn't exhausted too much already. But as he did, he finally noticed that Leslie had a folder in her hands.

"I'm here to drop off Chris's expense reports, the ones he didn't need from yesterday," Leslie stated as if there was nothing else on her mind. "But there's something on the third page that I really need you to go over after I leave. Then you can take the rest to Chris, and only the rest to Chris."

For a minute, Ben thought she wanted to reenact what led to their first kiss. But she had to know he couldn't pull her in for a kiss now, since Chris was within earshot. He didn't know what to think of whatever she had in page 3 either, since they hardly needed written evidence of what was going on. This was what he got for letting her being sneaky without supervision, he supposed. But he had to keep up appearances that this was a normal drop off, so he took the folder from Leslie.

"Great, have fun going over Chris's reports, or parts of them!" Leslie wished. Despite everything, Ben's heart still sank for a minute, when Leslie actually had to leave after handing over reports this time. It wasn't even 8 a.m., and this was already getting too difficult. So he hoped against hope that whatever was on page 3 wasn't too revealing.

Ben made extra sure no one else was coming in, then turned his back to his office door and started looking through Leslie's folder. When he got to the third page, it looked like a regular old report- except for one tiny note that had been placed on top of it. And the handwriting was undeniably familiar.

"_Happy first day of being sneaky! Love, Leslie."_

At that moment, Ben was already dreaming up ways on how to best preserve this note in his room.

Yesterday went by in such a long-awaited blur, he couldn't remember if he said he loved Leslie or not, or if it was too soon to do so. But Leslie had actually written down the word "love" in a note to him. Even if it wasn't as clear cut as the statement "I love you" it was real, genuine proof that she did. And it may not have been as perfect as hearing her say it herself, yet just imagining her voice saying "Love, Leslie" out loud as she wrote it was perfection-lite.

Therefore, Ben quickly but carefully put the note in his right pocket. And it was another good sign that neither Chris, nor anyone else who came by the office, noticed that his hand was on top of that pocket for the next two hours straight.

By the time he finally removed his hand, Leslie was in her office, looking focused on the day's work, as always. So far, no one had noticed her nerves showing through, or if they had, they had mistaken it to be over the latest raccoon raids. They were still blissfully unaware of the other scary things in the world, like wondering if Ben found her note, if Chris actually read those reports too early, or even the briefest doubt on whether she was sneaky enough after all.

What she wouldn't give to return to a world where rogue raccoons seemed like the biggest threat in Pawnee.

"Leslie?" Unlike Ben, Leslie jumped up just an inch or two at hearing her secret…..someone greet her this morning. "Um, we have a staff meeting in the conference room in 10 minutes. I just wanted to give you the heads up."

"Ah, right. Well then, thanks for your heads, Ben. They are very nice and they're sure to go up." Leslie brought herself to chuckle at her lame joke, before she could turn it into a lame and detailed comment on how nice Ben's head was. For his part, Ben nodded and headed off, without another comment or message, or anything else secret.

But since he didn't have any news about their earlier meeting, she almost felt safe to assume that her mission worked. And if Ben got her little covert message, then perhaps he had one planned for her at this meeting. After all, she saw in Indianapolis how inspiring Ben's coded words could be- even when she exhausted herself trying not to dwell on it at the time.

Yet when she got to the conference room, all Ben did was talk about regular old work stuff. Normally, that would have thrilled Leslie, but it seemed almost anticlimactic today. When she couldn't decode any special messages, it left her with the rare and unpleasant feeling of being disappointed, and almost bored, by a morning meeting. Clearly, this was already taking a harsh toll on her.

But she didn't let it show, as she would be the last one to leave, as always. Ben seemed ready to go as well, yet he showed no signs of going over to her, or giving her any type of sign. In fact, he almost seemed to make a kicking motion, to punctuate his walk out of the room.

So Leslie sighed and got herself to stand up. However, the process of getting up led her to notice a ball of paper near her foot, underneath the table. It figured that someone had to be messy to top this whole thing off. But Leslie wondered how it could get into her clean area, unless someone just threw it down there or….kicked it over.

Although it probably defeated the purpose of a secret message, Leslie noticeably jumped down to the floor to get Ben's secret paper ball. But since the meeting was over, there was no one to notice her do this. Perhaps there were a few lessons she could learn about being discreet after all.

Yet that might depend on what Ben went to this much trouble to say. So she turned her back to the conference room door and unrolled the answer.

"_Best first day ever so far. Love, Ben."_

So using the l word at the end of her note paid off after all. For the first time ever, Leslie was glad that she had to edit something 20 times before getting it right.

She carried that gratitude and extra bit of bliss into lunch time, and let it expand a little bit when Ben came to join her. But since they still couldn't kiss hello, and since there was no place to hide balls of secret paper, he just sat down with his food.

Both of them deflated a little bit, now that they were stuck with the same problem from earlier this morning- how to talk and say everything they really wanted, without really saying it here. Without any pencils or paper, it might be a little more difficult.

"So, this is what secret relationships do to you," Ben said to break the silence. Leslie was puzzled, since she thought they couldn't say 'secret relationships' or any other combination of those words, out loud here. But at least now when he said she wasn't sneaky, she'd be able to bash his lack of skills too.

Yet since he was her secret boyfriend now, she was sadly obligated to give him the benefit of the doubt, and let him explain himself first instead of teasing him. "Yes, it is….what is that, again?"

"They make you pass notes around like high schoolers, apparently. But at least we've kept them from stuffy Mr. Traeger and Mr. Swanson so far. And even from class clowns like Tom and Jerry." This broke the awkwardness enough to make Leslie laugh, and to make her brush aside the horrifying thought of Jerry as a clown.

"I guess that's what the 'cool kids' did while the rest of us were in student government meetings," Leslie added, before part of Ben's joke raised a red flag. "Wait, if you knew that, then were you one of the cool kids? Or did you just do…..certain cool kid things?"

Leslie half wanted to know about Ben's high school life- at least the parts before the mayoral campaign- and half wanted to know if he had any experience in secret relationships after all. Of course, if he said yes, then her interest might decrease a bit, or she'd have to force herself to keep it down.

"No, I didn't do those things myself. But I had enough time on my hands to notice how others did it. They'd pass notes, and find other secret ways to be affectionate….like going into supply closets, or some other small, discreet room, for a few minutes at a time."

For once, Leslie wished she did much more in high school than draft student government amendments. It shouldn't take kids that long to find stuff in a supply closet, especially if two people were there. And if it was at the end of the day, the janitor might lock it up and leave them trapped in there. All alone, with no one to hear them or see them do anything-

Now Leslie remembered how high school kids spent that time in the movies, and gasped in realization- and in other flustered emotions. So Ben tried to clarify himself before she got louder.

"I'm not talking about doing as much as they did, don't worry," Ben reassured, although part of him wished she wouldn't have to worry. "And it's certainly too risky to do more than once. But since this is the first day, and since we've done so well so far, I think we can visit the third floor supply room just this once."

Now that Leslie could clearly translate this as a covert make out session offer, she had to blush in spite of herself. But before her blush got too big for anyone else to notice, her rational side- or what was left of it today- came back with some concerns. "Wait, now? During lunch? Why couldn't you have asked to do that before I started eating? But if you want to risk it that much…."

"It doesn't have to be now. We can take a break later, have our…..meeting, and after a few minutes, we should be good for the rest of the day. How about you go looking into the closet at 2:30, and I'll help you look around a minute later?"

Since Ben had more expertise in this sort of stuff, Leslie nodded. After all, following someone else's lead just this once wouldn't kill her. It would if making out wasn't involved, but Ben already knew how to make her find special exceptions.

Although they had done a share of kissing yesterday, this would be their first official, lengthy make out session ever. Since all of their making out would have to be secret, and behind closed doors, Leslie figured she'd have to get used to it now. It wasn't the ideal way to finally kiss him all over his adorable nerd face- but it didn't make it all that bad, all things considered.

With that settled, the two finished their lunch, and actually had a normal, regular conversation in public, just like the pre-kiss days. After they got finished, they said goodbye to each other, and then counted down the minutes until 2:30.

Once there were only five minutes of that countdown left, Leslie took her leave from the office, in order to get a head start. She tried not to rush so obviously, but it did take an effort for her not to run. After all, once she got to the supply closet and made sure no one saw her go in, there'd be no need for notes or covert plans over lunch. For just a little while, it would just be Ben and-

"Leslie Knope!"

Once she heard her name, coming from the worst, more annoyingly cheerful voice possible, Leslie swore she actually heard her teeth grind a second later. But she unclenched her jaw as much as she could, before turning around to see the infamous Mr. Traeger himself.

"Chris….I'm surprised to see you out here. Isn't there some sort of 10k run you need to be on?" That was the nicest possible way Leslie could tell him to get lost in code.

"Oh, I rescheduled it for 4 p.m., and I'm so glad I did! I have the most incredible news for you! You know that idea you pitched when you were wide awake and smelly after your camping trip?"

"Heh, I pitched so many, you'll have to be more specific really soon," Leslie insisted with an impressive fake smile, under the circumstances.

"Oh, of course, my deepest apologies." Well, at least he said he was sorry for something. "What I was referring to was your idea for a new observatory. I just found out that it was met with approval from the higher ups, so it's officially a go! Now you can turn it into reality with full funds!"

This entire week was just a string of firsts for Leslie. The one where she was only halfway excited to get a project idea approved, and not that eager to celebrate it right now, was among her least favorite firsts by far. Fortunately, even a halfway excited Leslie was enough to keep Chris oblivious. "Wow, that's great, unexpected news! Thank you for coming all the way here to tell me!"

"Luckily you weren't too far away from my office, so now we can have a nice, brief run back there! I usually like longer runs, but I'm too excited to get started on this to wait!" But Leslie pretty much tuned him out after he said they were going to his office.

"I, uh, I….I'm kind of busy right now, and I really, really don't want to trouble you," Leslie countered once she could start talking again.

"You don't have to be shy, I checked with Ron, and he confirmed you cleared your schedule for the next 30 minutes! That should be more than enough time to start brainstorming some early ideas. And don't worry about troubling me, because I have literally been dying to see you work on a project like this again! So it would be my honor to be on the ground floor this time!"

"Dying to see it, huh? Well…..when you put it that way, why wouldn't I want to speed that up?" That innuendo was all that kept Leslie going, as Chris made her run further away from the third floor closet.

It took 15 more minutes for Ben to finally leave the closet, once he realized that no one would join him. It almost made sense, since things had been going too well in the last 24 hours. Something had to break the streak, but he hoped he would get some extended make out time with Leslie first. Maybe she got too nervous, or maybe Ron or Tom or Andy roped her into some kind of crazy distraction. Either way, he wasn't going to question her about it in a public place, and she was probably unavailable anyway.

He had cleared his schedule for a half hour, so going back to the office now would be too suspicious. So he just wandered around City Hall- at least the places that weren't near the parks department- until it was safe for him to get back. By then, any tension he had from a half hour ago was…..manageable, which gave him some comfort as he headed to his office.

Yet he still must have been thrown off, because he thought he saw a mass of blonde hair inside Chris's office during the walk back.

After a second, he was horrified to realize he wasn't hallucinating.

The mere thought of Leslie being caught and interrogated by Chris made him run halfway towards Chris's office, until he froze in place just in time. If Leslie had been caught on the way to the closet, Ben would have heard during his walk that Chris was looking for him. In addition, he was still smiling, which even he wouldn't do if he knew his precious policy was violated.

So on the off chance that he and Leslie weren't ruined right now, Ben got himself to walk the last few feet towards the office.

"Ben, you're back from your break just in time!" That could be interpreted a few ways, so Ben kept quiet to find out which one Chris used. "Me and Leslie were just wrapping up an amazing brainstorm session to launch her observatory project! You should have seen her fire off all of her early ideas, it was incredible!"

"Yeah….I suppose I should have seen it." Ben managed not to totally collapse into the nearest seat, despite all of his relief, nerves, guilt, and pride for Leslie. He couldn't quite look at her yet, but at least Chris said they were just wrapping up.

"Trust me, it is just inspirational to see her at work like this. Leslie, you must really care about space and the stars to put so much into this."

"Stars have their moments, I have to admit," Ben heard Leslie say. "I didn't think I'd like them so much at first, since they're so far away and kinda geeky. But the more you look at them, the more you want to spend time with them, and the more you get ticked off when you can't do it that often. But I'd like to think they'd understand if you couldn't see them, as much as you really, really wanted to."

Oh no, she wasn't. She was not taking a page from his own playbook. But once Ben was finally able to look at her, the look in her eyes told him she wasn't thinking about stars at the moment.

"They're kind of a secret pleasure of mine, although I wish it wasn't much of a secret sometimes. I mean, since they're so bright and warm, and they're always there for me to admire, and they'd probably look so cute and perfect if they were people, why should I have to hide how I feel about them? I'll say it….I love the stars, and I hope to share it in the most public way I can soon."

Okay, now she was making it way too hard to not grin like a lovesick puppy in public. Maybe he really wasn't the sneakiest one in this relationship after all.

"And there is nothing wrong with your love, Leslie. I am going to do everything to make sure you have the most public display of love possible, and that's a promise!" But leave it to Chris to find new, bitterly ironic ways to break the mood. "Unfortunately, we've used up all of your free time for now, so we should let you get back to work."

Since their window of opportunity was closed, Chris was sadly right. If Leslie was distressed over that, she wasn't showing it, as she actually shook Chris's hand goodbye without looking like she wanted to rip it off.

"Thanks for letting me bounce ideas off of you," Leslie said, before turning to Ben and shaking his hand. "Don't worry, we'll do our share of bouncing next time, okay?"

"Oh, uh….next time, then," Ben managed to say. Leslie nodded and showed herself out, leaving Ben to sit back down, and try to avoid not sliding off his chair.

Perhaps it was fortunate that Ben and Leslie were too busy to meet afterwards, after all they'd been through. Therefore, the second half of the work day went a lot smoother, during those rare moments that they weren't thinking of the first half. But like the high schoolers they acted like for the first few hours, they kept looking at the clock near the end of the day, waiting to be dismissed home.

Finally, closing time came, and the two made their way out after saying a quick good night to everyone else. Leslie was the first to exit City Hall, and only had to wait a few seconds to find Ben walking out too. Once they finally noticed each other, they looked around to see if it was safe to talk. Once they saw it was, they got back to being confused on what to talk about.

"Well….that's one day down," Leslie finally decided, as a way to sum it all up.

"I guess that's the best perspective possible," Ben conceded. "And hey, you got another great pet project out of it. Terrific speech to seal the deal, by the way."

"Thanks…..that speech was all that got me through after I failed my other projects today. But this one will be great too, although I'll have to work some late nights on it. Since we can't even go out and do stuff at night, at least it'll kill some time."

"Don't worry, I'm sure your project supervisor will help you murder that time," Ben set up. "Of course, I don't know if all my time murder weapons can get through security, but…."

Ben deliberately left that hanging, so Leslie could piece it together. When she did, she had her second big gasp of the day, and first without a giant blush. "You mean…."

"After you left, I agreed with Chris that your forbidden star love needed to get out there. So who better to help than the other half of his dynamic duo? We'll have all the late nights we need to fine tune the observatory plans and numbers…..and maybe some time left to better plan out our daytime projects, too."

"Yes, I knew I had the smartest secret star ever!" Leslie cheered semi-quietly. She halfway jumped up to hug him before she knew better, then stopped and stalled on her next few movements to touch him. Finally, she settled for reaching up on her tip toes and patting Ben on the head.

"I do feel like a good boy now, thanks," Ben quipped.

This set the two at ease for a precious few moments, before they reached Leslie's car. With that, they would have to part for the rest of the night, instead of heading to dinner or talking more about their day at Leslie's house. But they made themselves shake hands for another goodbye, although they made sure that their hands stayed clasped together longer this time.

They wouldn't see each other in person until the next morning, where they'd have to work out more covert plans. They couldn't even talk on the phone too much tonight, as Ben needed to keep his voice down so April and Andy didn't hear, on the off chance they weren't completely vegged out.

Spending a whole day and night like this is not how new couples are supposed to live. Yet as they focused on their successes today, that last handshake on the way home, and reflected on how they'd have busier nights together soon, they conceded it wasn't all bad. It may not have been better than yesterday, but it was better than two days ago for certain.

Now that their first day jitters were over, they could go back to hanging around normally as friends at work, while working on a better system for more private meetings. And after today, they were a day closer to when they could make those meetings more public. Although it would be nice if the wait was a little less than 10 or 100 days.

But the smaller moments were going to have to get Ben and Leslie through the wait- and for this first day, at least, they had enough of them. That was enough of a win for now.

One day of secrecy down, far too many left to go.


End file.
